Highlights#
- First study to examine empathy and physiological synchrony in psychopathy using real dyadic interactions
- Familiarity enhances cognitive empathy, but even strangers show significant empathic accuracy
- Psychopathic traits negatively linked to affective sharing and physiological synchrony — but not empathic accuracy
Summary#
Most empathy research — particularly in psychopathy — relies on questionnaires or artificial observational paradigms that strip away the very social dynamics empathy depends upon. To address this, we conducted a naturalistic dyadic interaction study with 41 dyads (N = 82) in New Zealand. Pairs engaged in six-minute conversations about major positive and negative life events, while heart rate and electrodermal activity were recorded simultaneously. Participants subsequently re-watched the conversations and continuously rated their own and their partner’s emotional intensity, allowing computation of empathic accuracy, affective sharing, and physiological synchrony.
Using mixed-effects regression models and a multiverse analytic approach, we found that familiarity predicted greater empathic accuracy, though strangers also showed significant accuracy. Affective sharing and EDA synchrony emerged regardless of familiarity or conversation valence, suggesting both reflect relatively automatic, context-independent processes. Critically, psychopathic traits — particularly self-centered impulsivity — were negatively associated with affective sharing, and coldheartedness showed a negative relationship with physiological synchrony. However, no psychopathy factor was associated with reduced empathic accuracy, potentially indicating that richer real-world context attenuates cognitive empathy deficits typically observed in observational studies.
These preliminary findings underscore the urgent need to move beyond observational paradigms and adopt second-person approaches that capture empathy as it genuinely unfolds between people!
Publication:#
Burghart, M., Goldsack, R., Echevarria, A., & Eisenbarth, H. (2026). Empathy, physiological synchrony, and psychopathy: preliminary insights from naturalistic dyadic interactions. Cognition and Emotion, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2026.2637546